


Oh, Dear Fate

by Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Mad King Ryan, Mad King Ryan Haywood, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, king AU, minecraft au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:21:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes/pseuds/Illusion_Of_Sea_Axes
Summary: Achieve was a quaint little town (more like a village, really) on the edge of a rather large forest. It was a nice town, even if it wasn’t particularly interesting.





	1. Home is Where Your Heart is

Achieve was a quaint little town (more like a village, really) on the edge of a rather large forest. The town was surrounded on three different sides by a large expanse of plains. To the north, it quickly transitioned into hills and then a mountain range that curved towards the west. 

Snow covered the distant tips of the mountains. The forest border ran all the way to the wide river to the east, although the land on the other side of the river seemed to be completely covered in more forest area that gradually escalated to a jungle. 

 

It was a nice town, even if it wasn’t particularly interesting.

 

One would suppose that having the name of your soulmate permanently marked into your skin and not being able to age past a certain point until you found them would be considered interesting, but it was a rather normal thing in their world. 

 

A rather normal thing that Michael would not really care for until the name of his soulmate would appear. 

 

Michael lived in Achieve with the local architect, Jack. The man had found Michael as a young child on the edge of the forest, seemingly abandoned, and he had been with Jack ever since. 

 

When he had been old enough, he had assisted Jack in construction. When there was no work to be done, Michael had found himself practicing with swords at a training ground that had once been used by the town guards before Jack constructed a better one for them. 

 

Most of the kids had aspired to become guards when they were younger, it wasn’t exactly a niche. But Michael, he had mostly wanted to become a guard so he could look at the forests. 

 

Something had always drawn him to it and he guessed it must have something to do with how he had lived in the forest at a young age.

 

Over time, most of the kids moved on to other interests. Michael soon found himself no longer aspiring to be a guard, seeing as they didn’t seem to be having as much fun as Michael had originally assumed. 

 

However, he did not abandon the sword. He instead continued to practice in hopes of getting to use the weapon outside of town. Jack himself had tried to get Michael to find interest in other, safer things but ultimately gave up when he saw how happy Michael was with a sword.

 

For Michael’s sixteenth birthday, Jack commissioned an iron sword from the local blacksmith. The sword wasn’t very beautiful, it only had an ornately carved hilt, but Michael greatly appreciated the weapon and kept it with him whenever possible. It meant a lot to him. 

 

It was also on his sixteenth birthday that he first was brought on a hunting party outside of the town.

 

It was rather successful and Michael didn’t really want to leave the forest. He liked it there.  

 

It was on that hunting trip that Michael nearly died at the claws of a bear, although he did win. When they returned to the town, Michael had been too badly injured to bask in the praise of his kill and ended up not being allowed to go on another hunting trip. Jack played a major hand in that decision. 

 

However, a friend of Jack’s managed to get a majority of the bear pelt to Michael. That friend happened to be Geoff, the town’s local bartender. He was an older man and had the name  _ Griffin _ permanently printed into the back of his right hand, almost hidden among the tattoos that covered his arms and hands. 

 

Later on, when Michael was seventeen, Geoff mentioned a far off city. Michael had heard of other cities before, but he hadn’t really inquired about them. 

 

Geoff went on to describe a city of grandeur with the most extravagant castle he had ever seen in his years of travelling searching for work and then the few months he spent as a bard (he didn’t really like to talk about those months). His descriptions weren’t exactly very detailed but they were definitely enough to supply sufficient imagery for Michael. 

 

However, Jack stopped Geoff when right when he was about to bring up The King. Michael decided to not ask after how Geoff and Jack stared each other down. Even if his curiosity did nearly drive him to repeatedly.

 

When he turned eighteen, a lot of the other kids in town started mentioning their soulmarks. A lot of them would fantasize about who they would get, couples would just outright claim that their soulmarks would be each other because that was what they believed.

 

Michael hadn’t really thought too hard about his soulmark. So, instead, he distracted himself with hunting rabbits and gathering resources for Jack. He started working in the caverns and cave systems despite how it could become so stifling inside those small underground tunnels. On occasion, he would help Jack with his garden, but he was far more productive with other chores.

 

Geoff came over often and occassionally helped Michael with the easier tasks while telling tales of all the places he visited, the people he met, but there was always some small part he’d cut off or pretend he didn’t even say and continue on. However, Geoff never answered Michael’s questions about those bits and so he stopped asking.

 

It was Michael’s nineteenth birthday when his soulmark finally appeared. Jack had reassured Michael that even if his soulmark didn’t appear, it wouldn’t matter. 

 

An odd reassurance to give someone who didn’t really care about his soulmark. Although, Michael  _ did  _ care. He just did his best not to. He’d seen other kids in the town have their hearts broken when their soulmarks were people they didn’t know, people they didn’t like, not the people they had assumed they had fallen in love with. He didn’t want the same.

 

Besides, Jack had never talked about his own soulmark. Maybe he didn’t have one, but Michael never asked. It felt like some private subject that he didn’t want to intrude on.

 

Anyway, on his nineteenth birthday, Michael woke up to a tingling sensation in his right upper arm. Being tired, he nearly brushed it off to him sleeping weirdly. But then he remembered it was his birthday.

 

He looked at his arm, but the name had not fully formed then. So, Michael put on his usual clothes and let Jack treat him to an excessive breakfast to celebrate. Geoff was there as well, looking rather happy. 

 

His birthday present had been a small diamond dagger that Geoff and Jack had pooled their available funds to afford. An uniquely shaped hilt made of sturdy wood painted dark blue and a leather grip. It had a small red gemstone in the center of the hilt and Michael liked the way it glinted in the light.  

 

It was after that breakfast when Geoff finally asked; “Did you get it?”

 

Michael nodded and rolled up his sleeve to reveal the name that now lay etched into his bicep.

 

_ Ryan James Haywood _

 

Michael had never seen the color drain from Jack’s face that fast since he had come home from his first hunting party half-dead. He had never seen the color from Geoff’s face drain at all until that moment. 

 

“What?”  

 

There had been an awkward silence before Jack told Michael it was fine in a very unconvincing voice. Geoff just told him it’d be best to not show off his soulmark like the others. An odd request, but one he agreed to follow when Jack asked the same.

 

That day, Geoff took Michael out far from the town just so he could hunt some of the roaming wild animals that were too big for Michael’s rabbit traps and provided more of a chase he could actually win. Later on, Michael would assume this was mainly meant to distract him from the soulmark. 

 

It was a pretty successful hunt and Geoff seemed to be oddly familiar with a sword. Perhaps he was a hunter, judging from the tips on being stealthy that he gave to Michael to catch something easily by surprise. 

  
  


The sun was setting by the time they returned and they had a nice dinner of wild sheep. It was only when the conversation had died down that Michael finally remembered the name that was now etched into his bicep. 

 

The thought plagued him, even as he and Jack bid Geoff good night and Michael lay on his bed in absolute darkness aside from the lights that kept the roads illuminated at night filtering through his window.

 

At some point, he faded into sleep. Whatever he dreamed of that night, he didn’t remember it the next morning.

 

That next day went by rather slowly. Having emptied and reset all his traps the day before, Michael ended up working in a nearby cavern until late afternoon. He had come across a monster dungeon as well, so he was stained in disgusting zombie blood and smelled almost as bad as them. 

 

He spent nearly an hour scrubbing the digusting blood out of his clothes and decided to clean up the house a little bit for the rest of the day. His mind did keep drifting to why Jack didn’t want Michael to talk about his soulmark.

 

Did Jack know who his soulmate was? Was his soulmate a bad person? Every question left him feeling more and more confused and, in turn, frustrated. 

It was later, when the sun had gone down, that Geoff arrived. He usually would arrive earlier and when he did arrive, he was red in the face and panting. 

 

Michael had remained sitting at the work table, having started to clean up some of Jack’s tools a little time earlier. Jack had been startled out of cleaning some apples from the scrawny apple tree they had out back by Geoff loudly banging on the front door.

 

Michael watched, hardly paying attention to the tools anymore, when Jack and Geoff started talking in hushed tones. What was even more odd was that Geoff was wearing a full set of armor, a dark green cloak draped over most of his body, and a sword hung from his waist. Jack looked more and more worried as time went on before he turned to Michael. Geoff spoke before him, though.

 

“Michael, you need to go get your things?”

 

“What?”

 

“No time. Just grab your stuff and be ready to leave.” Geoff’s tone had been stern, unusual, and that had been enough to get Michael to listen without any real protest. 

 

He went to his room, grabbing a backpack he had mostly made himself with Jack’s assistance, and packing some things. He put on his steel-toed boots and bear-pelt hood. It draped over most of his arms and over the entirety of his back, held to his shoulders with a simple iron clasp. 

 

He grabbed the iron sword Jack gave him for his sixteenth birthday and slid it into the scabbard on his thick leather belt. Just as he stepped out of the door to his room, he heard loud knocking. A moment later, gruff voices that completely contrasted with Jack’s. 

 

Geoff rushed over to him from the stairs, grabbing Michael’s arm. He had a new pack now, a worn leather one that looked to be stocked full of something. 

 

“We have to get the fuck out of here,  _ now _ .”

 

The two crept down the stairs. Michael briefly glanced around the staircase to see Jack’s shoulder. He was blocking most of the doorway, but Michael could still see the metal armor covering the people outside. 

 

Geoff tugged rather harshly on Michael’s arm, dragging him to the kitchen and out the back door which led them into Jack’s garden. Multiple rows of different plants, one row of trees on the far end. Geoff dragged Michael past the plants. Their breath formed faint clouds in the chilly night air, but neither were that affected by it. 

 

The fence of Jack’s garden only reached up to Geoff’s knees, so they had no trouble stepping over it. The moment they were both on the other side of the fence, Geoff grabbed Michael’s arm and booked it.


	2. Catch Us If You Can

“Geoff!? What the fuck is going on!?” He finally managed to ask. They had started to leave the range of light from Achieve, the dark of the night flushing everything a blue-ish color. Long stalks of grass and wild heather whipped at the two of them as they ran, although neither of them really felt any of it. 

 

“I’ll explain when we get you away from all those soldiers!” 

 

“Soldiers!? Why are you-” Michael staggered, his foot catching in a rabbit hole he hadn’t seen in the darkness. He landed on his stomach, arm jerking painfully when Geoff didn’t release his grip and managed to stay upright. 

“Shit!” Geoff cursed, grabbing Michael’s other arm and pulling the man to his feet. 

 

A loud shout got their attention. Their heads snapped around and Geoff’s grip tightened briefly at the sight of a small collection of armored men who seemed to be looking at the two of them. 

 

“Move- MOVE!” Geoff snapped, pushing Michael forward. The two broke out into a sprint again. The harsh shouts of the soldiers filled the night air as the two kept running. It was rather convenient that Jack’s house rested on the furthest edge of the east side of town. 

 

The two kept running, Michael’s back quickly starting to ache with Geoff’s constant pushing. In the late of the night, Michael could only hear the soldiers shouting, the crickets and the faint rushing of the river water.

 

“Geoff! The river-!” Whatever he said, Geoff didn’t listen or didn’t comprehend it and kept pushing Michael ahead. 

The grass wasn’t as tall, the closer they got to the river. Soon the ground was transitioning from dirt to sand and stones. Geoff and Michael skid to a stop at the edge of the water, the ground slightly higher than the water. 

 

Michael was nearly transfixed by the water, the swirling dark depths he couldn’t see the bottom of. He couldn’t even see his own reflection, but maybe that was just how dark it was, the moonlight glinting off the rippling surface only slightly.  

 

“Jump!” Geoff’s voice snapped him out of it. His head snapped around to face him. 

 

“JUMP!? Are you fucking insane!?”

 

“JUST JUMP!” Geoff shouted back, looking over his shoulder at the approaching soldiers. A strange light rippled over the surface of their drawn swords, the moonlight seeming to only make them glow more unnaturally.

 

Enchantments. 

 

“Fuck.” He cursed, taking several large steps back before pushing off into the fastest sprint he could make. The cold night air stung at his face as he rushed forward and he briefly saw Geoff stepping back away from the river before his feet pushed off the edge of the riverbank in an ungraceful leap. 

 

For a brief moment, the dark churning water was all he could see beneath his feet. Then he was crashing stomach-first onto the other side of the river. He couldn’t stick the landing, slipping and stumbling before hitting the ground. Pain briefly lit up his ankle. 

He heard a heavy thump to his right, the harsh sounds of armor pieces hitting each other briefly panicking him before he felt one arm wrap around his torso and pull him up to his feet. He let out some indistinguishable sound before Geoff was dragging him forward again. 

 

When Geoff let go of him moments later, he managed to keep moving. It was darker here, the only light being the stray rays from the moon that managed to get past the thick leaves that made up the canopy.

 

The shouting had gotten considerably quieter. However, they kept running. It was a while longer of running, or it felt like one at least. Geoff cursed as they both started getting struck in the face by low hanging branches and tripping over foliage and what were either tree roots or rocks or both. 

 

Eventually, Geoff huffed out; “Let’s stop.” 

 

Michael used blind searching with his hands to find a tree, pressing his back to the slick wood as he heaved out a breath of relief. He heard fabric and things being shuffled about and he could faintly see Geoff’s silhouette as he searched through a bag.

 

“I hope you brought some kind of a light.” 

 

A minute later, they both had a small flickering light coming from a lit branch that Geoff held over his head very carefully while a badly singed bush lay trampled into the slick grass next to him. 

 

Michael was sitting on a fat tree root, back pressed to the tree trunk while Geoff observed what he could of their surroundings. 

 

They weren’t in the thick of the jungle, the vines were sparse and not very thick and the foliage was relatively dry compared to what the rest of the jungle would probably be like.

 

“We should be able to wait til morning and then keep going…”

 

“What the fuck?” Michael blurted out, looking up at Geoff. “What the fuck was that back there?” 

 

Geoff sighed, sitting down against a tree opposite of Michael and driving their makeshift torch into the ground between them. 

 

“Soldiers.”

 

“I  _ know  _ that.” Michael snapped back, crossing his arms. 

 

“Royal soldiers,” Geoff clarified. “They work for the king. Kind of like his personal servants.”

 

“That doesn’t explain why you forced me to leave the house.”

 

“They were looking for you. Sort of. It’s a big complicated mess.” 

 

“We have plenty of time.” Michael gestured up at what little of the night sky they could see from where they sat. 

 

“Guess you’re right.” Geoff muttered, running a hand over his face. “Alright. They were looking for you because of your soulmark.”

 

“That’s why you guys looked so frightened when I showed you? Why?” 

 

“Because, Michael, Ryan James Haywood is King Haywood. King of everyone in this territory. _The Mad King_.”

 

“The Mad King? Why do you call him the Mad King?”

 

“Because he’s  _ mad _ , Michael. You know how you don’t age until you find your soulmate so you can grow old and shit together?”

 

“Yeah?” Michael asked, wanting to understand where Geoff was going with this.

 

“Well, he hasn’t aged. He hasn’t aged at all in the last  _ century _ .”

 

“So he’s trying to find his soulmate?”

 

“His  _ new  _ soulmate, Michael. He doesn’t want to find you so he can grow old with you. He wants to find you so he can kill you.”

 

Something about that made Michael shudder, a knot forming in the bottom of his stomach at the thought of his soulmate wanting him dead. 

 

“ _Why_?”

 

“So he doesn’t age. He’s been killing all of his soulmates since he was crowned King so he can live forever. Every time he does, he waits nineteen more years until his soulmate gets the soulmark and then he sends his soldiers out to kill them.”

 

“That’s why you guys were so panicked…” Michael murmured with sudden understanding.

 

“We were hoping that maybe he wouldn’t come looking in Achieve. Guess we were wrong.” 

 

“Why not just leave his soulmate to live in peace!? If he doesn’t find them, then he doesn’t have to worry about ageing!”  

 

“I don’t fucking know, Michael. He’s insane as dicks and that’s all we need to know.” Geoff snapped back, looking away. 

 

Michael huffed, pressing the back of his head against the tree. He closed his eyes, trying to sort out all this new information in his brain. 

 

“My soulmate’s a serial killer king. Out of all the people in the universe, I was the one to get stuck with the fucking Mad King as my soulmate.”

 

“That’s exactly why we have to get you out of here. I know some guys who can get you someplace safer. They can get you out of Venator and that means the Mad King can’t touch you.” He opened his eyes again, looking at Geoff.

 

“What about Jack?”

 

“He’ll be fine….” Geoff didn’t sound very sure and that was enough to spark something in Michael and twist up his stomach even more.

 

“What the fuck are they gonna do to Jack when they figure out I’ve been living with him for years!? That he helped me!?” 

 

“Jack’s capable of taking care of himself.”

 

“ _Geoff!”_ Michael nearly shouted, hands balling into fists at his sides. “I don’t want to just leave Jack behind. We can’t just abandon him like that!”

 

“We didn’t abandon him or leave him behind, Michael. He chose to stay behind and distract the soldiers.”

 

“Why didn’t we just leave earlier? Why didn’t we-”

 

“If I had known that he would send his soldiers, we would have left hours ago when the sun was still out. Trust me, Michael, I’m worried about Jack, too. But we can only hope for the best. Maybe they didn’t even realize we came from Jack’s house.”

 

Michael let out a heavy exhale, running a hand through his hair. “Can we keep moving?” His tone sounded defeated, drained. Geoff’s face briefly turned to one of sympathy before he schooled his features and plucked the torch back out from the ground.

“Yeah. C’mon, buddy.” Geoff offered a hand to help Michael get back to his feet. Michael accepted it, letting out a small groan at that.

 

Geoff held up the torch and two continued to walk through the jungle. Now that they weren’t running, they could watch their step.

Hopefully the soldiers wouldn’t get over the river before they got a good distance away.


	3. Chapter 3

 

Michael had been in the forests before, but he was not used to the jungle. That did not couple well with him and Geoff only having a small radius of torch light and the threat that they could be attacked at any moment hanging over their heads.  

 

Geoff kept looking over his shoulder, probably to see if Michael was still close behind him. 

 

Michael was still having a hard time fully wrapping his head around his current situation. It was incredibly jarring. He had never really known anywhere outside of Achieve or the plains and now he probably wouldn’t ever see it again. 

 

He tried not to think about how he probably wouldn’t see Jack again, either. 

 

“So, these friends can get me out of Venator?” He was kinda getting tired of the silence, even if it probably was smart to just listen and be as quiet as possible in their current situation.   

 

“Yeah. One of them works with a trading company and lives close to the ocean. The others are scattered about, but they can be helpful in getting you the fuck away from this place.”

 

“Aren’t you gonna be the one taking me out of here?”

 

“Maybe. It’s good to be prepared, though.”

 

Michael didn’t like how ominous that seemed to him. Geoff was smart, he knew a lot of places that Michael didn’t. Would he end up getting taken away somehow? The idea that he could lose Geoff just as well as Jack was one Michael didn’t really like to think about at all. 

 

The two fell silent again and Michael decided to occupy himself with observing details of the jungle. 

 

As the night drew on, Michael found himself unable to really take in the details. The jungle didn’t seem to be changing much, aside from where the roots were snaking up through the dirt and through the underbrush, or where the next rock would attempt to trip him up. 

 

Geoff didn’t stop for a while, only calling for the two to take a break when he noticed how Michael was starting to lag. The two had spent a couple minutes resting before Geoff forced Michael back to his feet and the two continued on their way.

 

“Geoff, do you even know where we’re going?” They had been walking for hours, placing a considerable distance between them and Achieve (and by extension, the soldiers) in the process. However, nothing seemed to be in the near distance and Michael was starting to falter with how much his muscles burned. 

 

“There should be something.”

 

“Like what?”  

 

“Maybe some old pathways, trade routes, a village if we’re lucky.” 

 

“If we’re lucky.” Michael repeated, feeling a little more fatigued from the uncertainty that Geoff’s plan seemed to be made of. Or maybe that was just the situation.

 

They kept walking for a while longer and it was only when the first streaks of sunlight lit up the horizon through the jungle canopy that Michael actually realized how long they’d been moving. 

 

“We’ll stop here.” Geoff said eventually, as the sky had started shifting to brighter colors. There were a couple large rocks, their surfaces rather smooth and perfect for the two to rest on. Michael was grateful for the rest, watching as Geoff wedged his torch into the earth and started rooting through the pack.  

 

“So, Geoff, when do you think we’ll find something?” He asked, not wanting to be left in silence.

 

“I’m not sure. I just rushed for the nearest form of cover, I wasn’t thinking about convenience.” Geoff muttered, pulling out a loaf of bread and trying to break it evenly down the center before handing it to Michael. 

 

“Shit. So, we might just be walking off to die in the wilderness?”

 

“No. There’s bound to be a trade route or a village or something nearby. We’ll be fine.”

 

Michael didn’t feel reassured, but he ate what was offered to him in sudden realization of how hungry he had become. He pulled out a flask and uncapped it before he took a quick swig of it. Michael accepted it without hesitation when he offered it, taking a swig as well. The water was refreshing and he wanted to drink more but Geoff took it back from him before he could.

 

He really, really didn’t want to keep walking and Geoff seemed to realize this. He closed the pack and set it at his feet, shuffling over so Michael had a majority of the surface to himself.

 

“You should rest. I’d rather you do that now then pass out later.”

 

Michael shrugged, laying on his side and propping his arms up beneath his head as some form of comfort. He laid on the side where his scabbard wasn’t, so it wouldn’t dig uncomfortably into him.

 

His sleep was brief but Michael felt at least a little better when he woke up. Not great, but better. They set off again without the torch, seeing as the sunlight managed to illuminate the area well enough. 

 

Michael had used to fantasize about being an adventurer, about journeying across continents to find adventure and fight in epic battles like in all the stories the local librarian would tell. But now, he was very aware of how much he would likely hate it.

 

Walking and nothing else except brief rests to stay hydrated or rest aching legs was all they did for hours. There was no interesting things in the jungle. All Michael really noticed was the gradual thickening of the foliage and how the ground had grown muddier. It was sticking to his boots, but he didn’t really care. 

 

The humidity was starting to increase as well, but Michael was doing his best to ignore it. At some point, Geoff had taken off his cloak and stuffed it into the pack. The fact that he was still wearing all that armor and he was still walking was enough to keep Michael from complaining. Well, that and how he also was the one with all the water and food they had. 

 

Eventually, night came upon the two again. Geoff lit the torch again as the light began to dwindle and the two chose to rest by a thicker tree. Michael sat on one of the thicker roots, gratefully accepting the chunk of rabbit meat that he was offered.

 

The temperature started to drop relatively quickly as the sun set, so Geoff pulled his cloak back out and draped it over himself. 

 

Michael drifted off to sleep rather slowly. He didn’t feel like he’d slept much at all when he woke up. He was probably going to have to get used to that feeling. 

 

The day passed in a blur to Michael. Walking only broken up by a couple breaks to drink and eat before continuing. Geoff did talk at some points, trying to get rid of the awkward silence, but it didn’t really work. 

 

When night came again, the two rested in a wide alcove in one of the bigger trees. Geoff shoved the torch into the ground in front of them and they quietly shared water and apples in peace. 

 

“It’s weird we haven’t seen any monsters yet…” Michael muttered, running a hand through his curly dark hair. 

 

“Yeah… Makes travelling easier.” Geoff murmured, leaning back. Michael could see he wasn’t relaxed, though.   

 

He didn’t blame him. He didn’t feel very relaxed, himself.


End file.
